Let AI read seating requests
Read requests sends your guests' seating answers to Claude, with names and party numbers only, never an email or phone, and turns them into rules you review.
GalaOwner · Admin · Manager
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Guests write seating requests the way people talk: "with the Goldbergs", "near Avi", "not next to my ex". Read requests sends those answers to Claude, Anthropic's AI model, which matches the names to your guest list and suggests rules. You decide which to keep. The AI never seats anyone.
Before you start
- Turn on Ask at checkout in the Read requests window, so guests have somewhere to write their request. See Seating requests and rules.
- Wait until some guests have answered. The button stays off with no answers.
Read the requests
- 1In the seating editor's top bar, click Read requests.
- 2Under Requests, click Read requests.
- 3Read the summary: how many requests Ovante read, how many matched, and how many need you.
- 4Under Suggestions, Accept or Skip each rule, or click Accept all confident.
- 5Look at Needs you for requests it couldn't match, with the reason. Seat those parties by hand.
What Ovante sends, and what it never sends
| Sent | Never sent |
|---|---|
| Guests' names, and a short number for each party | Email addresses |
| What a party bought, like a table | Phone numbers |
| Your tables' numbers, names, zones and notes | Payment details |
| The text of each request | Anything from other events |
If a guest typed an email or a phone number into their request, or you typed one into a table's notes, Ovante masks it before anything is sent.
How it handles doubt
- It matches a name only when exactly one party on your list fits. A nickname or a small misspelling can match when nothing else fits as well.
- Two families with the same surname, a relative with no name ("my sister's family"), or a name that isn't on your list go to Needs you, never to a guess.
- Each suggestion carries Confident or Check this, and a one-line reason for the match.
- Guests' words are treated as names and wishes only. Instructions written in a request are ignored.
Limits
- Your organization can run Read requests 20 times a day. After that, it says to try again tomorrow.
- Each run replaces the earlier suggestions you haven't decided on. Rules you've accepted or skipped stay as they are.
- If Claude can't read the requests, Ovante says so and leaves them for you to seat by hand.
Good to know
- Suggestions move no one. Auto-seat uses a rule only after you accept it.
- Only your event's team can run it, and only while Gala is open.
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Seating requests and rulesAsk guests at checkout who they'd like to sit with, turn their answers into rules, and accept the ones you agree with. Auto-seat follows accepted rules only.Auto-seatAuto-seat fills your tables by party in seconds, follows your accepted rules, and shows you the result before anything changes. Apply it, or cancel.Who sits togetherOvante groups guests into parties: everyone on one order sits together, unless a bundle bought a whole table, in which case that table's seats are the party.Seat your guestsIn the full-screen seating editor, drag a party or a guest onto a table, or click them and then the table. Every move saves at once, and Undo takes it back.